Taking a look back at seven days of news and headlines across the world of Android, this week’s Android Circuit includes an extensive Galaxy S8 review, record pre-orders for the S8 family, new issues in Samsung’s hardware, details on the Pixel 2 family, why the LG G6 is the equal of the S8, the BlackBerry KeyONE launch, Alphabet’s increased earnings, 2017’s best Android apps, and some stunning night-time images from the first Pixel smartphone.

As the Galaxy S8 hits the retail shelves, Forbes’ Gordon Kelly has been taking an extensive and in-depth look at Samsung’s new handset. While the first impressions are amazing, he’s spent time getting to understand the flagship for his 3,500 word review:

Samsung has launched the Galaxy S8 and it might be the most beautiful smartphone ever made. It appears to be something a hyper-intelligent alien race accidentally dropped and we now get to study it. But under the microscope you’ll find it is clearly and frustratingly human, its perfection marred by series of bizarre and occasionally facepalm-worthy flaws.

The Galaxy S8 is Samsung at its most Samsung-y. It’s a heartbreaking work of staggering genius...

A man walks past an advertisement for the Samsung Galaxy S8 at the company's showroom in Seoul (Photo: Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images)

Strong Pre-Orders For Galaxy S8

Samsung has confirmed that pre-orders for the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus are thirty percent higher than those for the S7 family. Given the S7 pre-orders were a record at that time, the year-on-year increase is good news for the South Korean company:

This suggests that Samsung has retained the confidence of consumers following the incendiary Galaxy Note 7. The global recalls and eventual dropping of the flagship phablet was a painful period for Samsung Mobile that could have had a long-term impact on the brand. Surveys at the start of 2017 suggested this would not be the case and the Galaxy S8 would not have to carry the ballast of the battery fires.

Samsung can point to the increased pre-sales if anyone questions the brand power.

With memories of the Note 7 debacle, Samsung will be hoping that the Galaxy S8 does not have any major issues ‘out of the box’ Two minor issues have popped up - an issue with wi-fi monitoring and a red tint showing up on some screens - but Samsung has proved that it has learned something from the Note 7… how to react publicly to these issue:

What is important in these cases is not that they have happened (every consumer electronics production line will have small issues) but how Samsung has reacted to the issues. It has been open and forthcoming not just in acknowledging the flaws, but also provided clear information on what steps are being taken to address the errors.

If you want to know something that Samsung has learned from the fiery Note 7, then this is it. These flaws may be embarrassing, but the response shows that the South Korean company has decided how to address any problems with the Galaxy S8 family.

More details on Google’s 2017 handsets are coming to light, as Gordon Kelly reports on the new information surrounding the upcoming Pixel 2 family. Code analysis on the open source side of Android reveal three potential handsets:

…the references show all three use Qualcomm’s cutting edge ‘MSM8998 chip’ (more commonly known as the Snapdragon 835), the hardware used inside the US edition of the brilliant but flawed Galaxy S8. All of which tells us two key things.

Firstly, Google is not making a budget Pixel this year as no affordable smartphone will use a top of the range Snapdragon 835. Secondly, this is the third independent confirmation of the codenames in Google’s own code, and historically the company has always used fish/aquatic mammals to both brand its smartphones and use them as hints to size:

Like the Samsung phone, the G6 has a different screen proportion to previous smartphones, opting for a ratio of 18:9 instead of the more common 16:9. This means it doesn’t stretch the hand while still managing to squeeze in a big display – 5.7 inches. The display on the S8 has an 18.5:9 ratio and a 5.8 inch measurement. But let’s remember that the S8 has curved edges so some of that visible screen slopes off to the side.

…Some say that having sloping edges on a phone mean you need to hold it in a different way which can be less comfortable over time. It can also lead to more erroneous touches, according to an ergonomics professor wheeled out at the phone’s MWC launch. If you don’t like curved edges, and not everybody does, you are a bit stuffed when it comes to the S8. In which case, LG’s straight edges may suit your grip

Alphabet’s Earnings Show strong year-on-year growth both for the company overall and for the hardware division (which includes the Google Pixel smartphones alongside the Store). Abner Li covers the news:

Revenue is up 22% from $20.25 billion in Q1 2016, with net income at $5.42 billion for this quarter. For comparison, Alphabet reported $26 billion in revenue and $5.3 billion in net income last quarter.

Hardware sales of the Google Pixel and Home are grouped together with the Play Store, enterprise efforts, and more in “Other Revenues.” This quarter it is at $3 billion, compared to $2 billion the same quarter last year, but lower than the $3.4 billion from the last quarter that included the holiday season.

The Blackberry KeyONE has been launched in the UK. Sporting a 4.5 inch touchscreen above the traditional BlackBerry keyboard, the device will go on sale in May in the rest of the world. TechRadar’s John McCann has the details:

In terms of specs you're looking at a Snapdragon 625 chipset, 3GB of RAM, 12MP rear camera, 8MP front camera, Android 7.1 and a 3,505mAh battery. That's a solid line up, but it doesn't quite match the flagship power of the Samsung Galaxy S8, LG G6 or Huawei P10.

…[the physical keyboard is] a niche, but one that still has a passionate following, plus with the added levels of security BlackBerry has baked into the KeyOne it will also be pushing it at businesses looking for secure devices for employees.

Kainz used an experimental app for HDR called SeeInTheDark. He coupled it with an app he wrote for Android that allowed him to control exposure time, shutter speed and focus distance for bursts of up to 64 exposures. The raw exposures were captured as DNG (Digital Negative) files and downloaded to a PC for processing. The processing involved averaging the exposed images and then subtracting an equal number of pure black images to eliminate some faint visual noise effects.